Abstract
The Macromarketing Society Inc. is in the strongest position it has been in history, with record numbers attending the conference. At the same time, and for the first time, the conference may not be held this year. This commentary focuses on the position of the Society, plans for the future, the Journal and the structural issues impacting on holding the conference this year.
We live in interesting times. After being elected president of the Macromarketing Society at our last conference, in Cleveland, my carefully considered strategies for the Society’s expansion have been thrown away for now. The world appears to be in a transition state, at least one transition.
Macromarketing’s Goals — Saving the World
In the immortal words of, our founding Editor, George Fisk “Macromarketing is saving the world” and the world needs saving. The current environmental crisis was foretold (Forrester 1971; Fisk 1974).
As macromarketers we must continue to be brave, to take on big topics, to provide solutions not just problems, to engage with the public and with institutions, and we need to make sure our findings are made available to policy makers and the public. To that end I encourage all authors in the Journal to submit a translation of their article to the Conversation (https://theconversation.com) or other outlets for research translation.
The Journal of Macromarketing
The Society is deeply grateful to Joe Sirgy for stepping up to edit the Journal. Joe is a leading scholar of the highest order. His h- index (Scholar.google) of 82 puts him in very rare territory indeed. His contributions to quality of life (QOL), macromarketing and consumer behavior demonstrate the breadth of his scholarship.
The Journal of Macromarketing is again (2019 revision of the rankings) rated A in the Australasian Business Deans Council (ABDC) list (https://abdc.edu.au/research/abdc-journal-list/). The ABDC list is, justifiably, being used for promotion and tenure in Europe and the USA, not just Australasia. The list’s creation uses an open methodology and submissions are able to be made on the draft list before each revision is finalised.
Unfortunately the Journal is not receiving the recognition it deserves everywhere.
One of our problems, as a relatively small group, is a lack of citations to the Journal of Macromarkeing in other journals’ publications. If the members of the Society each cited a recent paper (Impact Factors are calculated with 2 year — the more commonly reported figure — and 5 year windows, favouring quick to publish and cite disciplines) in the Journal of Macromarketing once in each of our publications in other journals, the impact factor of the Journal of Macromarketing would rise drastically, and along with it the Scopus quintile. The scholarship of macromarketers has implications for many disciplines, who will benefit from being exposed to our Journal.
At a time when young scholars are required to publish in high ranking journals to receive an interview, achieve a job offer, achieve tenure/confirmation, or be promoted, the importance of the Journal’s ranking cannot be overstated.
The Macromarketing Society Inc
There is much for which to be thankful. Our conferences have record numbers of submissions and attendees. We are entering the third/fourth generation of macromarketing scholarship associated with the conference and now the Society. There was clearly macromarketing scholarship before the first Macromarketing seminar/conference in fact much scholarship was macromarketing in focus (c.f. Means et al. 1939; Vaile et al. 1952; Shaw 1912; Alderson and Miller 1930). The (great) grandchildren (genetically and/or doctoral grandchildren) of the titans of macromarketing are now appearing and contributing at our conferences. We have an increased energy as young scholars attracted to macromarketing’s foci join the Society. Sadly, and naturally, many of the sage voices are being seen less frequently at conferences. The impact of seeing Roger Layton, George Fisk, Stan Shapiro, Tom Klein, Robert Mittelstaedt, among others, inspiring young scholars has been a highlight of recent conferences.
One of the real strengths of the Society is its conference being truly international. Going to different parts of the world has exposed many scholars to macromarketing and broadened our experiences and our influence and hopefully their influence on us.
We have seen a, predictable, drop off in academic engagement with the Society when the conference has not been in a region for a number of years. To maintain enthusiasm for and engagement with macromarketing we need to retain a presence in areas where we are strong and to venture into new areas (Asia and Africa have yet to host the conference). Finding a balance between maintaining enthusiasm for macromarketing through the conference visiting a region and extending to new regions is not straight forward. To extend to a new region we require a champion on the ground — someone committed enough to attend the conference regularly before hosting.
We have already seen writing workshops in Madrid and planned for Russia. It is important that we don’t cannibalise our conference by setting up alternative publication outlets. The writing workshops are designed to develop academic work for submission to the conference and ultimately this Journal.
The conference planned for Bogotá, Columbia is to be our 45th annual conference, held without a break. The current health situation means that for the first time our conference looks in question. Recently the Executive met with the Conference organising committee and agreed to postpone the 2020 Bogota conference until November. There is simply too much uncertainty in the world as Covid-19 infection continues to increase and borders are closed in many countries. Many countries in the world, including Columbia, lock down their citizens in an attempt to slow the spread of Covid-19, sometimes with projected end dates, sometimes seemingly indefinitely. What the situation will be in September (the latest date we could confirm the conference for November, allowing attendees to book flights, etc.) is unclear.
The Society’s executive is actively working on plans to widen the availability of macromarketing scholarship, extend our community and our conversations between conferences, and the future format of conferences.
Covid-19
The Corona virus, Covid-19 (SARS-CoV2), is intimately related to marketing. It’s transmission from animals to humans occurred in and around a food market in China. Insufficient care with the food production system, associated with industrial farming is likely the root cause of the virus’ spread to humans and through human populations.
As I write this and for the next month many countries/regions are in lock down — citizens are required to stay home, unless they are working in essential services or leaving the house for essential purchases (food and medication). The application of a ‘lock down’ has varied in different places. Some countries have allowed; bakeries, butchers, farmers markets, food deliveries, bike shops, etc. to remain open. Other places have given supermarkets a near monopoly of supply for the duration, including New Zealand. Governments are, with the best intentions, creating macromarketing problems and we need to remind them of the findings of our scholarship.
The importance of food security and medicine security is prominent in the media. Is it time to trade off tiny savings for shorter distribution channels and more local production? If not for Covid-19 for climate change and the increase in severe weather events that make single production facilities a potential liability rather than a strength.
The climate change crisis (O’Neill et al. 2017) is much like Covid- 19, but in slower motion, we can see climate change in front of us, we must do something to survive and we wait, and wait. Our current forms of markets are poorly designed to deal with crises or medium to long term phenomena. Net present value analyses with unrealistic discount rates lead to favouring the present over the future and have been behind much of the behaviour that has lead to climate change remaining, largely, un- addressed.
Currently in my city it costs $10 for a single face mask, if you can get one (only a couple of weeks ago under $10 for 100). Hand sanitiser is unavailable in many retail outlets. Medication is being rationed as active ingredients come exclusively from Covid-19 affected areas. The market cannot respond quickly enough, local production facilities closed by competition from low wage economies cannot be unpacked and staffed overnight.
During a crisis we are reminded that the economy is a subset of society, not the purpose of society. (Macro)marketers can bring our tool set; provisioning, attitude formation and change to the crisis to help adjust citizens’ expectations and to increase the efficiency of supply. If not for this crisis, we need to help firms and countries prepare for the next.
The Channel and its Workers are Essential
Macromarketing is concerned with marketing as a provisioning technology — the matching of heterogenious demand and supply in a situation of specialisation. As Covid-19 spreads through the world we see essential workers required to leave the safety of their homes and continue working. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, orderlies, hospital cleaners, ambulance drivers are the usual societally endorsed heroes of crises. Those workers maintaining infrastructure and sanitation are less visible, but recognised for their essential work.
Workers in food distribution channel are also essential workers. Workers close to the customer are likely they are to be paid minimum, or low, wages. Food producers, and their workers, have seen their income squeezed by dominant players in the food distribution channels over recent decades. These workers are unlikely to receive widespread thanks from society during a crisis, let alone in ‘normal’ times.
We must not forget that marketing scholarship is training students in and around essential services. Modern society cannot function without our graduates. That is a long way from the public’s jaded view of marketing (Farmer 1967, 1987). There is no doubt that some marketing is exploitive and promotes unnecessary consumption. But, so is some medicine — cosmetic surgery, leg lengthening operations, and the medicalisation of normal human conditions (ADHD, Restless leg syndrome, etc.). The misbehaviour of elements of any profession should not be applied to it as a whole.
Teaching macromarketing courses is a long way off in most business schools. Those school’s embrace ‘social impact’ but don’t know where to find it in their curriculum. We must step forward and offer our courses and our solutions.
Our Aspiration — Macromarketing is Recognised as a Legitimate Discipline
As we go forward from this crisis what should the position of macromarketing be? It is my goal for macromarketing; that macromarketing, like macro economics, sits in core/required subjects for business degrees, that we play our part in workers in the distribution channel being recognised (socially and financially) as essential workers, and that we clearly communicate the case for the professions of the channel members are seen as contributing to society. that marketing as a whole goes back to its roots and recognises the strength of and necessity for macromarketing studies.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
